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Taxi driver describes frightening armed robbery

Police on Tuesday said they were still searching for a man who robbed a cab driver at gunpoint in Rochester on Sunday morning.

Franks Taxi driver David Hackney said he picked up the robber on Portland Street about 3:20 a.m. Sunday. The man asked if he could be taken to Somersworth.

The robber then pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and told the driver to pull onto Haven Hill Road.

"He tapped me on my arm with it, so then I looked down and noticed that it was a gun," Hackney said. "I don't know what I was thinking except for, 'I can't believe he just pulled a gun on me.'"

Hackney said the robber then demanded his money.

"That's when he told me that I needed to give him all my money, and I pulled my wallet out, he grabbed my wallet, took the money, threw the wallet down and bolted out the door," he said.

The robber took nearly $500 before fleeing.

Hackney said he thought about fighting back, but then reconsidered.

"But then my kids flashed in my eyes," he said.

Hackney, a single father, said he is just trying to make ends meet while raising his two sons.

"I just don't understand why people have to go out and try to rob somebody and take what they worked hard for," he said. "I work to provide and do the right thing for my kids, just to have someone come and take it away from you."

The robber is described as a 6-foot-tall white man with a thin build, a goatee and an unspecified tattoo on his right forearm. He was last seen wearing a very puffy gray jacket, black pants, dark sneakers and gloves.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Officer Matt Leccacorvi at 330-7127 or call Rochester Crimeline at 335-6500.

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